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I have been given the opportunity to leave Canada to go tour Europe on my lonesome, however the issue is that I don't know how to go about doing that so I am here asking the great TL to aid me in this endeavour.
The issues that I face would be that the only languages I know are Polish, English, and mediocre at best French, and I know all too well how uncomfortable it is to be in another country and not know the language, time must be spent in Poland out of respect for my family there, potentially having to deal with winter, and not knowing where I will sleep along the trip.
The two planes I am looking at are from Vancouver to London, and Vancouver to Frankfurt. I don't know which one to pick as I would love to travel, mostly by train, from Spain to Moscow or St. Petersburg and everywhere in between. Unfortunately I doubt I will be able to see the Nordic countries, unless I happen upon a cheap ferry service that i can take advantage of. I am willing to spend up to 6 months abroad, unless I find a job that requires no experience and pays well by happenstance.
As a side note, Frankfurt is the most intimidating airport I have ever witnessed.
This part of the blog will be short, how do you travel when you can not speak the language of the country you are in? I would like to know this, as in the past I have always been rescued by a friend who can speak German or Russian or any other language that can help me communicate with other people.
I need to spend some weeks in Poland to visit my aging grandparents, and get my Polish documentation in order (passport and such), should I go through this process at the beginning of my trip (thus defaulting to buying the ticket to Frankfurt) or around the middle (ticket to London)? This brings up another issue, is that Eastern European winters are harsh. I know this, so it would be best not to travel during this time unless one wants to die of hypothermia. Another issue that comes to mind is that I will be travelling with whatever I can fit into a travelers rucksack, winter clothing likely would not fit.
I trust myself from experience from travelling with friends and family to be able to get myself from point A to point B, but the interesting thing is that now that I will have a financial restraint that will prevent me from being able to stay in hotels, inns, and other such places. My question to that is, what countries are safe to actually sleep in trains and train stations? I know for damn sure I would never try it in Eastern Europe, but I do not know Western Europe nearly as well. If all else fails, I can schedule my trip to allow me to sleep in airports, but I think that my restrict how much I can actually travel. If you happen to know any cheap places I can sleep, that would be awesome. And so far as keeping myself fed, I am not too worried as it isn't too hard to find a bakery and grocery store in pretty much any town in Europe.
This blog was written fairly hastily, and as a result rather poorly. It has just been the ideas that immediately ran through my head when I was faced with this chance and I know for certain that I am going to go through with it. I need to prepare for this trip, and will most likely come back to this with more and more questions, I have to go now, but will look to the comments for feedback later.
 
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It comes down what places you'd like to visit. Big cities with a lot of tourists like Paris or Vienna are just fine languagewise. You might run into troubles on the countryside though. Places with a lot of young people work well too, ofc (like Wacken if you're into Metal).
Germany/France/England should be pretty safe but I witnessed security to drive people out of waiting rooms at train stations in Germany for not having a ticket. I dunno how that's in the other countries.
I don't know how much money you have but I feel that even trains are quite expensive at least in Germany. You should check out offers, at least from "Deutsche Bahn".
one final remark: You do know that you need an invitation for Russia? (Hotel can give you one, but you need to get that beforehand afaik)
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Hyrule19227 Posts
Hostels are cheap, usually around $5-15 per night, and are safer than train stations
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You should not sleep in train stations or anything of the kind, unless you don't mind waking up to find your boots missing. Couchsurfing might be an option, or work for roof exchange things (although I'm not sure if you're going to find a lot of those during winter, I guess).
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@Hyrul
Thanks, I have been looking at train schedules and prices, the more civilized countries are not as cheap as I thought they would be 
The last time I traveled to Russia I was a stowaway on a train, so no I did not know you needed an invitation. I do know however that it only takes 15 euros to pay off the man who checks the train.
@tofucake
Thanks, I'll see if there is a reliable way to find these hostels on the road.
@Salazarz
I mean, sleeping in train stations is not unheard of, but it is something I would like to avoid. I'll look into couch surfing but I don't know if I will be able to do work for roof.
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On July 19 2013 13:22 Thaniri wrote:
@Salazarz
I mean, sleeping in train stations is not unheard of, but it is something I would like to avoid. I'll look into couch surfing but I don't know if I will be able to do work for roof.
It's not uncommon to throw sleeping people out of train stations over here (southern Germany) unless they can show they're actually waiting for a train. Obviously that kind of thing also depends on your looks, personally I don't recall anyone who even remotely looks like homeless / not showered in a week sleeping in a train station.
Your best bet are youth hostels (you should be able to get a pass for those somewhere in Canada, I believe the international version is called "Hostelling International Card", more information for e.g. Germany can be found here). I don't think there's anything else that offers better bang for your buck if you want cheap accomdation.
Oh, there we go. This is the international version, make sure to check their list here on whether you need a membership in a specific country or not.
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I don't suppose you're going here, but as for the Czech republic, the young folks should mostly speak English to at least some degree and most older people should be able to understand Polish as they've been seeing it on the TV. If you try talking Polish to a young guy like me chances are I'll guess the meaning of a single word in a sentence.
Nobody here expects a foreigner to talk in Czech, but sometimes people get annoyed with some, most notably, Germans not being able to say "Dobrý den." instead of e.g. "Guten Tag." when sharing the same hotel etc. There's something about Guten Tag in particular that just pisses people off lol.
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@r.Evo
Wow, thanks a lot for these hostels, very good resource!
@Stratos
Prague is a beautiful city, I may visit again. We all know that the most important word is piwo. Maybe Dzien dobry.
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Trains are pretty do-able in Europe. You want to research whether or not to get an europass.
Check it out here for example.
Furthermore language is no problem man. Especially if you are travelling by train, you end up in cities and you'll be fine everywhere in Europe. If you know english and a little bit of french, you are pretty safe in almost all european countries. Expect especially all the northern/northwest countries to speak English. In south-europe it can be more difficult to express yourself, but you'll get there. I honestly wouldn't worry about that.
Cheers! Gl and hf!
Edit: On second looks, this site is what I actually meant for trains: http://www.interrail.eu/. Also, Eurostar busses are pretty cheap and you can sortof sleep in them, especially if you were planning to sleep in train stations anyway :p
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You could save a lot by hitchhiking especially in the western Europe. Poland and the east generally has very cheap buses and trains. If you want to go to Scandinavia, you can try to hitchhike a car waiting to get on the ferry (make sure its a ferry that charges per car, some are charging per person and you will have to buy a ticket anyway).
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I went through Europe by myself. I mostly stuck to Western European countries (Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, etc.) because I hadn't been to them before. I used some kind of 10-train ride flex pass, which I think I remember was the cheapest and most flexible option. I think students can get a deal on this pass as well.
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On July 19 2013 22:28 Random_0 wrote:
I went through Europe by myself. I mostly stuck to Western European countries (Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, etc.) because I hadn't been to them before. I used some kind of 10-train ride flex pass, which I think I remember was the cheapest and most flexible option. I think students can get a deal on this pass as well.
Yeah, that was probably the interrail "10 travel days in 22 days"-pass
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Germany also has some highly frequented car sharing sites, where people post times and stops of their routes and how many seats are available and it's generally cheaper than trains.
just recently, there are also buses doing the tours in Germany between the major cities. Buses in general are pretty good in Europe, in Spain, they go everywhere for pretty cheap, Czech Republic also has them.
Not sure about 6 months however, you usually get 90 days in Schengenland as a tourist. If you are aiming for a Polish passport, I'd recommend to inquire beforehand and to do it as soon as possible.
Hostels in Germany are quite unfriendly towards adults, I have been turned away. They are called Youth hostels for a reason it seems, adults are expected to pay for hotels. Which will set you back at least 40 Euro per day. You might want to look into private pensions/rooms, or couchsurfing.
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Unfortunately I doubt I will be able to see the Nordic countries, unless I happen upon a cheap ferry service that i can take advantage of.
Ferries from Tallinn to Helsinki should be about 30ish euros, maybe even a bit less during the winter/autumn. But then again accomodation in Nordic countries tends to be rather expensive so depending on your budget and what kind of offers you manage to find it might still be too much.
Language is not an issue in nordic countries, you should really never get into situation where you can't get help from an englishspeaking person. Be ready to ask for help in english though, as finns at least are somewhat insecure about their language skills and might not be eager to start a conversation/come serve you in stores etc. with a foreign language.
EDIT: Still about the language issue: If you don't speak the language or travel with someone who speaks it Russia is the last place in Europe where I would go to. Or at least pretty close to the top of the list. But I'm a finn so take that with a pinch of salt ^^
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Hyrule19227 Posts
Most Nords speak better English than Americans or Brits
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On July 19 2013 23:29 Rimstalker wrote:
Hostels in Germany are quite unfriendly towards adults, I have been turned away. They are called Youth hostels for a reason it seems, adults are expected to pay for hotels. Which will set you back at least 40 Euro per day. You might want to look into private pensions/rooms, or couchsurfing.
They can't turn you away when you're a member. Youth hostels in Germany require membership in either the German or the international Youth Hostel organisation (see links above). Worst case they turn you away because of that without telling you that that's the reason because... they don't like your money. Being turned away without a membership is the standard, not the exception.
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On July 20 2013 01:21 tofucake wrote:
Most Nords speak better English than Americans or Brits
i'm sorry to derail this a bit but what is it with the americans and "you and I" instead of "you and me"? It's even here on TL that this guy wrote about his gf and always using "she" instead of "her".
And to be slightly on topic: you should definitely visit Rome, although it's off the route Spain -> Poland. 2000+ years of human history in one place!
From my experience you also shouldn't "rush" through the big hitters like Paris or Rome. After two weeks of either of these cities I was overloaded with impressions and had troubles to distinguish all the awesome stuff I've been to. And take photos. lots of them.
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Hyrule19227 Posts
On July 20 2013 04:12 Hryul wrote:Show nested quote +On July 20 2013 01:21 tofucake wrote:
Most Nords speak better English than Americans or Brits i'm sorry to derail this a bit but what is it with the americans and "you and I" instead of "you and me"? It's even here on TL that this guy wrote about his gf and always using "she" instead of "her". And to be slightly on topic: you should definitely visit Rome, although it's off the route Spain -> Poland. 2000+ years of human history in one place! From my experience you also shouldn't "rush" through the big hitters like Paris or Rome. After two weeks of either of these cities I was overloaded with impressions and had troubles to distinguish all the awesome stuff I've been to. And take photos. lots of them.
"You and I" because the sentence should still work when you lop off "You and"
e.g.
You and I read TeamLiquid
I read TeamLiquid
You and me read TeamLiquid
Me read TeamLiquid
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Thanks Tofucake. That makes sense.
On July 19 2013 06:05 MysteryMeat1 wrote:
Then i get a sexmessage from she and my mom's face drops and phone gets taken away and they found out about the library and she (two different girls) She and I have mutual feelings.
I still don't get "from she" and "about she".
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On July 20 2013 06:05 Hryul wrote:Thanks Tofucake. That makes sense. Show nested quote +On July 19 2013 06:05 MysteryMeat1 wrote:
Then i get a sexmessage from she and my mom's face drops and phone gets taken away and they found out about the library and she (two different girls) She and I have mutual feelings. I still don't get "from she" and "about she".
From my experience She/He are words used together with verbs, and her/his more for adverbs and adjectives.
She is fat. She has cake. She eats cake. (right)
Her is fat. Her has cake. Her eats cake. (wrong)
However, you can use her correctly indirectly sometimes.
Her body is fat.(Describing her body) She eats her cake. (Owning the cake)
tl, dr; english is a stupid language.
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EPT
